Volume 2 (2) 2008

Over the past decade several studies have been published that investigate the metaphors employed in Nazi racist ideology from the combined perspectives of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Cognitive Semantics. The paper reviews these studies, and discusses their differences to earlier studies that were based on traditional rhetorical definitions of metaphor. Particular attention is paid to comparisons between Hitler’s metaphors and recent discriminatory propaganda, as well as to the interpretation of such ideological metaphors as ‘viruses of the mind’, and to the relationship between Hitler’s use of the Great Chain of Being and classical versions of this concept. In conclusion, it is argued that cognitively oriented CDA studies of metaphor use can contribute significantly not only to the conceptual reconstruction of metaphoric mappings but also to understanding their discursive history.

Bosmajian, H. (1983). The Language of Oppression. Lanham, MD.: University Press of America.

This study will address the motivations and incentives involved in the attempted cessation of drug abusing behaviors from the perspective of the user. The study used qualitative interviewing techniques based on 2005-2006 data to examine urban current drug users, who had been diagnostically identified as ‘in need’ of treatment, and who had recently renounced the use of drugs by expressing their desire to quit through the use of language. It was this language (vocabulary) that was examined for similarities and differences in their use of justification techniques in order to establish a typology based on their vocabulary of quitting.

This paper focuses on the linguistic representations of war and their implications; it examines how war is linguistically and rhetorically justified or rejected (Butt, Lukin and Matthiessens 2004). I propose the theoretical notion of a ‘Rational Decision Filter’ that allows us to understand the tone and intentions of the U.S. administration (Bhatia 2006), expressed through lexical choices (Caldas-Coulthard 2003). I analyze several U.S. presidents’ speeches to observe the characteristics of their discourses when dealing with ‘enemies’ and show how a rational filter applies to legitimate or avoid confrontation. I describe strategies of legitimatization or de-legitimatization and their emotive effects (Chilton 2004). The arguments employed to justify war against Afghanistan and Iraq (lack of freedom, lack of democracy, totalitarian regimes, possession of mass destruction weapons …etc) were also applicable to other well-known nations in the world like the Soviet Union, China and North Korea. However, the U.S. administrations’ declarations barely refer to those regimes. Furthermore, this paper accounts for the U.S. administrations’ intentional elusion (Galasinski 2000) of these regimes when addressing a ‘foreign enemy’ in speech. I intend to describe when and why these elusions are latent. When the outcome of the ‘Rational Decision Filter’ is the physical war, politicians often use a device to create emotions of fear and rejection: ‘Explicit Emotional Enumeration’. I present this theoretical notion as a tool to analyze political discourse.

Rindler Schjerve, R. (1989). The political language of futurism and its relationship to Italian fascism. In R. Wodak (ed.), Language Power and Ideology: Studies in Political Discourse. London: John Benjamins.

Said, E. (1995). Peace and Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine in the Middle East Peace Process. Preface by Christopher Hitchens. New York: Vintage.

Since the emergence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (herein refered in this essay throughout as HIV/AIDS) epidemic in Kenya in the 1980s, studies on the same are numerous (Kwena 2004, NACC 2005, Achoka 2007). Quite a number of studies have been done on metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, Sontag 1989, Goatly 1997, Kovecses 2002, Charteris-Black 2004, Machakanja 2006). Since the first case of HIV/AIDS was reported in Kenya in 1984, many allusions and metaphors have been created and used by various speech communities to communicate the message on the pandemic. However, scholarly studies on metaphors used in relation to HIV/AIDS in general, if any, are very few. As far as the researcher is concerned, studies on metaphors related to HIV/AIDS among Oluluyia speakers of Western Kenya, in particular have been lacking. The abundance of utterances conveying metaphors used in reference to HIV/AIDS and related issues in Oluluyia is a sociolinguistic-cum-discourse analytical issue that calls for investigation. This essay, analyses language used in relation to HIV/AIDS and related issues among the Oluluyia speakers of Western Kenya.

Achoka, J.S.K. (2007). Female Gender Vulnerability and Challenges of HIV/AIDS to Health, Education and Development in Kenya. In: International Journal of DisasterManagement and Risk Reduction. Vol. 1 No.1. pp 29-33. Kakamega: Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology.

This paper analyses the representation of the EU in Canadian print media focusing in particular on the EU’s 50th anniversary in March 2007. Assuming that the ways by which the European Union (EU) is being construed by the world media co-determines the EU’s role and, probably, its effectiveness as an international actor, we apply this hypothesis to the case of Canada. By utilising Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as our methodological tool, this paper analyses the reception and representation of the EU in Canadian print media, and further unveils the discursive strategies employed by different media outlets.

Triandafyllidou, A. and B. Stråth (2003) (eds) Representations of Europe and the Nation in Current and Prospective Member States: Media, Elites and Civil Society. The Collective State of the Art and Historical Reports. Brussels: European Commission Research Directorate.